“That’s a man who puts me first. I gotta say it feels really good.” When she didn’t say anything, I had to let it go. I wasn’t sure she’d ever willingly own up to the tunnel vision she had for Keaton.
When I got to the back door she finally spoke.
“He needed me more than you ever did.”
I turned back to her. “Keaton needs to stand on his own. He acts like an entitled prick because you allow it.” I hurried out the door. The raucous laughter from the poker table wasn’t where I wanted to be.
I hurried around the side of the house and found Dutch standing out front with Mouse’s leash in his hand. I ran to himand threw myself into his arms. He caught me, just like always. “No one has ever said anything like that about me.”
“Then I’m damn happy to be the first and the last.”
“I love you, Dutch. More than I could convey in all the colors of my arsenal.”
He set me down and framed my face in his hands. “I love you too. Every dark corner in my life has been lit up because of you. I’m looking forward to the future for the first time in my life.”
Mouse wiggled between us and we both laughed.
“Because of you too.” Dutch ruffled his ears.
I wrapped my arm around his back. “Let’s go home.”
Epilogue
DUTCH
August
It tookme a bit longer to finishThe Passagethan I expected. In the end, I had an arsenal of women who ran my life and I wasn’t mad about it. My new agent, Brooke Laredo, was a pitbull. Petra Jerome was my lawyer, and of course Monte kept me on track with edits.
But the queen was her.
I stood on my porch where I had a bird’s eye view of Phoebe sitting on the dock, her legs dangling off the front as she tipped her head up to the sun. Her blond hair had lightened in the summer sun and her golden skin took on a light honey hue.
She suddenly straightened and turned, waving to me before returning to her sunning.
She always knew when I was looking at her.
I hurried down the stone stairs to the slip. Mouse was running up and down the water’s edge with a piece of driftwood, flinging it into the air without a care in the world.
I patted my pocket before I stepped onto the dock. “How long have you been down here?”
“Just a few minutes.” She grinned up at me and I couldn’t help but bend down and kiss her. She rolled her lips behind her teeth with a soft smile. “You taste like syrup.”
“Because someone left me a few pieces of French toast.”
“Someone thought you might like it with your coffee.”
“I sure did.” I sat down and reached under the slip for the boat launch lever that Keaton had installed for us. The scull lightly touched down in the lake. I’d learned how to maneuver myself into the boat without dunking myself, but I was looking forward to the boathouse Keaton was building with his crew over at Phoebe’s place.
The house was slowly coming together. Building on a lake wasn’t for the faint of heart, that was for sure.
Phoebe inched her way over to the edge of the dock right above me and I reached up for her and she neatly stepped into the boat. I used the oars to make sure we didn’t capsize as she slid into her seat.
“Good?”
Phoebe nodded. “Perfect.”
Even with our different sizes, we’d learned how to navigate the scull and found the perfect rhythm to push us out into the glass smooth water. The morning sun had some bite to it already, but we had a few hours before the late summer heat made it unbearable.
